How to buy and sell a cellphone online

Buying and selling cellphones online has become easy with the myriad of platforms available to buyers and sellers. A willing customer is just a click or a call away.

In this era of digital matchmaking, there is still the part where the friction of actually meeting up with someone and negotiating the sale takes time and effort.

Traditional classified websites like Gumtree are okay for selling tech items but it comes with a few disadvantages.

There is always the risk that the buyer or seller are not who they say they are. Getting conned is commonplace and hiding behind a fake identity is easy online. Also, there is the rigmarole of arranging a time and place to meet the other person. Our lives have accelerated at such a pace that time has become the greatest commodity. I don’t know about you, but the awkwardness of having to negotiate a price, where the buyer usually ends up losing out some money just to make the sale is also expected. How do you make this experience more frictionless and less painful?

This is when I found out about Phonetradr online. A simple Google search for “sell my phone” and some good search engine optimisation (SEO) brought me to their website. Their slogan is “the best place to buy or sell a used phone.”

Gumtree is not all bad, as the site does not take any commission on a sale. I gladly parted with a small selling fee for the added pleasure of not having to go through the above disadvantages.

How does it work?

You choose a phone. Phonetradr currently supports high-end smartphones limited to Samsung, Huawei and the Apple iPhone.

How to Sell A Phone

You list your phone on the website. The form is easy to complete and takes you through the listing process step by step.

Choose the make, model and colour of your cellphone. I sold a white Huawei P8 Lite.

You then select the capacity of your cellphone as well as the condition – is it damaged, good, excellent or brand new. Mine was listed as “excellent”.

In the next step you choose the accessories that are included with your phone – I picked “wall charger” and “USB cable”.

This is where the magic started.

I waited a week or two and lowered the price slider by a bit to speed up the sale. A sales consultant Josh kept me in the loop with emails and two phone calls. He managed to find a buyer for me. They arranged the courier service that picked up the phone from my workplace.

From there it went to their workshop where the phone was checked for defects. It was fine except for a damaged USB cable, which they kindly replaced for free. The next day I received the funds into my bank account. The phone was then sent via courier to the buyer. We do not know each other’s identities. If the buyer has any issues they deal with Phonetradr directly.

How to buy a phone

The site has loads of decent phones listed for sale. I haven’t tested this part of their service, but the phones are from real, legit sellers.

Conclusion

I listed my phone on 22 October and received final payment on 8 November. This makes it 17 days from the start until the funds were in my account.

All in all, a very pleasant experience. I really liked not having to worry about responding to buyers, filtering out the serious ones and spotting the scammers. It saved me a lot of time, all for a small fee of R251. Would I use their service again? Definitely.

Disclaimer: this review was not paid for by Phonetradr. I review good services and products that I find from time to time.

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